Archive for February, 2007

I just don’t understand it. Why do people have such a beef with Wal-Mart? It really bothers me. Now, I’m not talking of the people who don’t want it near their home. I sorta understand that (but if it was a Target, these same people would, many times, be just fine with it) to a degree but what bugs the heck out of me are all these Commie Socialists out there. They demand Wal-Mart have a union or they want to ban Wal-Mart from the city. They demand Wal-Mart increase their hourly wage or that they increase their prices so not to drive their competition out of business. Do we live in a free country? Do we have a capitalist system or not? Give me a break!

Let’s take a look at a few of these arguments. A union? Please. Unions are what is driving American Car makers out of business. If you think you get bad service at Wal-Mart now (which you usually do), don’t expect it to get any better with a union. Plus, why should they? I love the story of the guy paid by a labor union to protest Wal-mart. He was paid $6.00/hour with no benefits to protest Wal-Mart employees making $10.17/hour with benefits. Classic!

How about wages? Wal-Mart pays more than many other retail outlets. Maybe not the most but if you don’t like it, don’t work there. How many stories have you seen where a new Wal-Mart opened somewhere and they had 2000 job openings and 10,000 people applied? It happens all the time. Since when did higher wages and company paid health insurance become a right?

Check out this quote from some anti site: “In our America, corporations live up to their responsibility and provide their employees with adequate and affordable health care coverage. ”

What???? What “responsibility?” How about YOUR OWN responsibility buddy? Why is it your companies job to make sure you have health insurance?

This one you hear all the time: “Wal-Mart is driving the Mom and Pop stores in downtown out of business!”. Really? Wal-Mart is? How are they doing that? If the customers of Mom and Pop never shop at Wal-Mart and continue to go to Mom and Pop, would Mom and Pop die? No way. It would be Wal-Mart that would go under. So, you see, it is the customers that ultimately close Mom and Pop, not Wal-Mart.

I’m not going to sit here and say that Wal-Mart is squeaky clean. They have been caught on some issues and their service is usually poor. Their stores are usually messy as well. I KNOW THAT. I don’t go there expecting wonderful service or pristine end caps but hey, bottom line is the price. I will wait in line a bit longer and have to endure the redneck behind me and her screaming kids if I can get that G.I. Joe with the kung fu grip for $10.00 cheaper than Target.

The Wal-Mart story is a Capitalists dream. I guess some people (Liberals usually) just can’t stand success.

This is interesting. The Tennessee Center for Policy Research has found that Gore using 20 times more energy then the average household. What Hypocrisy! He stands up there on Sunday night, accepting his Oscar and tells us we need to use less energy…then hops back in his jet to fly back to his 20 room, 8 bathroom mansion. The mansion that uses more electricity every month than the average American uses in an entire YEAR! The mansion that uses more natural gas than the average American. A mansion that used $30,000 in electricity and gas in 2006. The same mansion he doesn’t even live in while he globe trots telling us to how to live!

Doesn’t everyone have someone like that in their office? Someone who has to say “Hi” to you every time they walk by your desk. Someone who, if you make eye contact with them, they feel that is reason enough to ask you how it’s going. Yes, you know who I am talking about. If you are reading this at work you are probably looking at that person right now. You know the one who is permanently happy. Now, I’m not talking about positive or optimistic. I mean they have some quirky or “cute” comment to anything and everything someone says. You could be in a meeting and the boss says “How is everyone doing today?” and that person pipes up “Doing fine and feeling fine sir!” Uggggh!!!

They are the kind of people you don’t want to have over hear you ask a question to someone because they will answer it.

Some catch phrases of this kind of person are:

“Okey-Dokey” (they might also be referred to as “Flanders” in some parts of the country

“You betcha!”

“TGIF!”

“I’m off to lunch!” (even though I’m not the boss and could care less)

“Good morning!” (the proper way to say it is “morning” in a gravely voice)

“Oh, GOODIE!”

“It’s Tina’s Birthday next week, do you want to contribute $2.00 for a cake?”

I am sure you have done this before. Someone offers you a cookie. You look at the plate and feel the saliva forming in your glands. The smell hits your nose and soon Pavlov would be proud. You can just imagine the semi-sweet chocolate melting in your mouth. You anxiously accept and take one only to notice upon closer inspection that it is filled not with wonderfully sweet chocolate but nasty raisins!!! Maybe you even bit into it first before you noticed. Yeah, I know. You just threw up in your mouth thinking about it, didn’t you?

Raisins have NO place in cookies. None. Ziltch. 50 year moratorium from putting anything this gross into a cookie. However, if you must put some in, at least have the decency to alert people of it.

Something else….there needs to be a moratorium on mixing chocolate chip cookies with raisin cookies. That is a low down dirty trick. I believe this goes back to OT times when Moses declared somewhere in Leviticus that a chocolate chip cookie becomes unclean if it touches a cookie with a raisin in it. Really.

Want an example? On Valentine’s Day this year a co-workers wife made some cookies. He sent an E-mail out saying come over if you want some fresh, yummy cookies. Of course a few of us made a dash over there. The cookie I got was very good. A girl picked one up and after looking at it saw it was full of raisins. Yes, his wife mixed the two on the same plate. UNCLEAN!!! UNCLEAN!! Anyway, this co-worker had to yell out “Hey! Anyone want a raisin cookie I touched?” since, being honest, she did not feel it right to put a cookie back once she touched it.

So, let’s all remember how the Israelites had to wander for 40 years because of raisins in cookies!

This Moratorium is actually not mine but I wish it was. Dr. Mark Elrod of Harding University, whose blog I browse from time to time, has a VERY good one. You can read about it here. The point of the article is how tiresome it is to hear “Breaking News!” and then it be followed by things such as these that Dr. Elrod points out:

A court hearing concerning the corpse of any deceased Playboy Playmate;

The shaving of any pseudo-celebrity’s head;

A slow-speed chase involving a police helicopter;

The arraignment of a serial killer;

An announcement that any celebrity, athlete or politician is going into rehab;

Any combination of the above.

Excellent. We need a moratorium on this pronto!

Funny thing is that last night when I got home the wife was listening to the radio and they did a breaking news update on Anna Nicole. I referenced this moratorium and her response was “Well, on shows like Extra or ET, things like this ARE breaking news!”.

When some future Edward Gibbon writes about the history of the decline and fall of the American Empire I am sure he will reference shows as Extra and ET as being the prime culprits!

Why is it when you ask questions about something it is automatically viewed in the negative by so many? Have a question about the war in Iraq? You don’t support the troops and don’t love America. Question a Police shooting? You must hate the Police. Question authority? You are a trouble maker. I’m really sick of this. Unless we want to live in a dictatorship, questions need to happen. We need to be asking questions then questioning the answers. I have seen far too many times where an elected official gets all upset when his policies are questioned. They must be hiding something if they don’t like you asking questions.

Can we please have a moratorium on ripping on someone who is simply asking honest questions? Oh, and when you get an answer don’t be like the stupid reporters of the Washington Press Corp who ask the same question again once they get an answer.

This moratorium is in two halves. The second part of it is ASKING questions. I am sick of Liberal reporters constantly asking question after question after question to Conservatives but Liberals…just little softballs with no follow up. Can someone point to me an instance when Hillary was asked any hard hitting questions? Please..someone show me one interview where she got the kinds of questions that the President gets. Bottom line is she doesn’t.

So, let’s also have a moratorium on more questions being asked…fast pitch hardball ones.

I was going to just do a moratorium on Ty Pennington and how much we need to STOP seeing his face on everything but the more I thought about it, the more I am just sick of these types of shows. It’s the same thing…one channel starts something such as “Trading Spaces” and it’s a hit then before you know it, every channel is doing one. Every talk host is doing it. As in any moratorium, the idea starts out good but just gets waaaaaaaaaaaaay over done.

A big problem with these shows sometimes is how phony it all is. They take a cute person and take the worst photo of them. Make sure the lighting is bad and they look like they lost their best friend They give them bad clothes and no makeup. Then, for the “reveal” or final product they give them great lighting, great clothes and have them smile huge. It’s so fake.

Yes, sometimes they really improve these people and yes, it is touching sometimes…but even “Where the Red Fern Grows” is touching..until you have seen it a dozen times and redone in 6 different ways.

I think we need a 10 year moratorium on any new makeover shows.

Oh..BTW, we also need one on Ty Pennington for at least 20 years. That dude is as bad as Rachael Ray!!!

“Today, under George W. Bush, there are two Americas, not one: One America that does the work, another that reaps the reward. One America that pays the taxes, another America that gets the tax breaks. One America – middle-class America – whose needs Washington has long forgotten, another America – narrow-interest America – whose every wish is Washington’s command. One America that is struggling to get by, another America that can buy anything it wants, even a Congress and a president.”

That quote is from John Edwards. Just exactly who is he talking about? One America that pays the taxes? The NY Times, hardly a conservative rag, stated that in 2004 “The top 1% of income earners paid about 36.7% of federal income taxes.” and “By contrast, families in the bottom 40% of income earners, incomes below $36,300, typically paid no federal income tax and received money back from the government.” John, I hate to break it to you but it’s the rich, not the poor, who pays the taxes.

One America struggling to get by? Gee John, I guess you sure are struggling…

That is the Edwards home. 28,000 sqft on 102 acres. That “barn” has living quarters, a handball court, an indoor pool and an indoor basketball court with a stage at one end. The home currently has a value over 4 million and is by far the largest and most expensive home in the county. Yes John, you’re right when you say “…another America that can buy anything it wants…” You’re living in “that America”. Gee, I wonder why Edwards had to go all the way down to New Orleans and stand in front of a destroyed home to annouce his bid for the White House.

John Edwards is a perfect example of the class warfare I am sick of. Liberals love to pit one class against another. They love to point out how horrible it is when someone makes money…except for Liberals. It’s fine for them to make money (and give it to the Democratic Party). Lately they have been talking about CEO’s and how much money they make. Even Bush has jumped on that band wagon. Why? What does it matter how much a CEO makes? I don’t begrudge anyone making money legally. Maybe someday, with enough hard work, I can be one of the “rich” that liberals so despise. It’s all about making people jealous and envious of one class then pointing out that class is backing Republicans so you should vote Democrat.

Remember as well, the rich didn’t earn money. They either inherited it or, as Richard Gephardt termed it, the top “have won life’s lottery.” Liberals love to use rhetoric like this to move their class envy along even though fewer than 2% of of millionaires in the US inherited their fortune. They never talk about people who work hard and earn money and move up and make more money. To them, income is not earned and it should be distributed. Hillary talks this way as well and it smacks of Socialism. Just take a look at the quote from Hillary in my profit post.

I have no problem with Edwards buying that house. What I do take issue with is his constant bashing of wealthy American’s, his talk of the evil CEO and “Big Oil” profits and his whole “two America’s” take on things when it is obvious, as Jay Leno points out, “Well, I think we know which America he’s living in,”.

Bottom line is, we need a good moratorium on people playing the wealth envy/class warfare card.

This moratorium is when more camera time is spent showing the interviewer than showing the interviewee. You get this with folks like Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer and Keith Morrison quite a bit. They have 4 or 5 cameras set up for the interview with 3 of them on the reporter. That way, they can go back and edit it so when a question is answered the camera can show Diane with her finger on her lip listening very intently or with Keith shaking his head in disbelief about something they said.

Look, I am watching your stupid tripe to hear what THEY are saying, not to notice your new brow lift or toupee or to see your feigned interest or your canned laughter. I don’t need to see you bow down to the Oprah or tear up when talking to Angelina Jolie about some new crusade she is on. Heck, with Angelina, I just want to see HER period (I can always mute it when she starts preaching).

We need a 20 year moratorium on having to watch these smug, self-righteous people interivew people.

What is wrong with people?? It’s winter. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT????? The media is treating all this snow in the Midwest and northeast as if aliens came down from Mars. Up in Michigan I read and hear people complaining about the snow and how cold it is. YOU LIVE IN MICHIGAN. IT GET’S COLD. THERE IS SNOW IN WINTER. Isn’t that partially why you live there? I can understand if you get transferred there for your job (sorta) but for those people who grew up there, you have NO excuse.

Consequently, I live in the South. It gets mighty hot in the summer and I hear the same thing when the tempature rises close to 100. Weather people freak out and people start to B&M. Give it a rest. It’s one thing to comment about the heat or cold but quite another to freak out and complain endlessly about how much you hate the cold/heat and can’t wait for summer/winter.

Oh, and have you heard the latest….snow and cold in winter is due to Global Warming.

Give me at least one or two years moratorium on over hyping the weather.